"To all who come to this Happy Place, welcome!" Walt Disney
used those words when he opened the original Disneyland in Anaheim California in
1955.

He could have been talking to us.

We started going to Eurodisney almost as soon as we got together, and it has
always been such a happy place for us. Look at the expressions on those faces!

Daphné, Marie-Hélène and Alban
were on the "train fou." which is what we
called the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, early in 1995 (others of the same ride here
and here) during the visit with Grandma.
As you can feel from the photo, it was our favorite ride for years. We would wait until a rainy day or late
in the day so that the children could go on it again and again without lining up.
There is a picture of this ride, along with its full size Western American
cousins, here.

This is a family that came of age, so to speak, in Disneyland in Paris,
thanks to Grandma Stock. When Marie-Hélène and Ian moved in together in
a
village in the Forest of Rambouillet, each bringing a pair of rather confused and unhappy children, all hell was
breaking loose all around. The respective prior relationships (his and her
exes) both went
crazy, financial problems reared their heads, the kids expressed and emoted
(duck!), and even the tax authorities seemed to embark on a
vendetta.

Into this psycho-social chaos rolled Ian's mother, whose continuing
ill-health obliged her to spend much of her time in a wheelchair, and off we
went. She invited all of us (we were then six, Charles and Alexander
having been barely imagined) to stay with her at Disneyland outside Paris.
It was an oasis for us, and stayed that way for two years as we visited again
and again, using the annual passports that she was kind enough to offer us all.

Grandma only managed to accompany us to Eurodisney a
couple of times because of her terrible health. On the right was one of
those occasions, for her birthday in 1995. She was 68.

So, logically enough, she received a birthday
cake! It was in the California Grill at the Disneyland Hotel, and
she was not expecting it. Hence the amazed look in the picture
above.

N.B. her cigarettes, which were never far from
her reach. She smoked a couple of packs a day of unfiltered
cigarettes for her entire life after the army, and no ailment could convince her
to quit. Her "fags" and the interminable cups of tea were fixtures for
those who knew her.

So the beginnings of this family were cemented at Disneyland in more ways
than one. The photo below shows Marie-Hélène, Daphné and
Tom on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at
the original Disneyland in Anaheim in April
1999.

Ian asked Marie-Hélène
to marry him
on Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland in Paris, the roller coaster that we
all called the "train fou." He thought that she said "oui", but it could have been
'wheeeeeee"!
None of us ever tired of the "train fou", and we did get
married!

Sadly, when we tried to purchase a plaque in the park recounting this story,
the managers turned it down, apparently finding it risqué.
No way, guys! Just a little harmless fun!

Whatever was going on in that nasty world outside, the beautiful decor and
painstaking attention to every detail, not forgetting the best rides that "imagineers" can come up
with, were a little, easy-to-reach sea of gaiety and frolics. Here, at
least, the children were able to be children, and how!